In an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters, Google’s Schmidt boasted of his company’s lead over Apple in the mobile-software rate, stating that it mirrored Microsoft’s lead over Apple in desktop-software in the 1990s.

While companies like Apple and Microsoft have long insisted on tightly-controlled systems, Google’s strategy has relied upon the opposite concept: open systems that can be easily improved upon by its users.

According to Gartner Inc., while Apple only held 14 percent of the market in the third quarter, Android devices held 72 percent — ceding revenues to hardware company’s like Samsung Electronics, a strategy which Schmidt says creates a “bigger pie” from which to generate revenues.

Governments starving for revenue — such as France, Italy, Australia and the U.K. — are also currently probing Google in response to the recent revelation that Google saved $2 billion in 2011 by using off-shore tax shelters.

Schmidt, who insisted that Google pays for and saves on taxes legally, said during the interview, “It’s called capitalism.”

“We are proudly capitalistic,” he said, “I’m not confused about this.”